Mike Moore

Mike Moore    (labor leader, deep state functionary)
Born	28 January 1949 New Zealand
Died	2 February 2020 (Age 71)
Nationality	New Zealand
Spouse	Yvonne Dereany
Member of	Trilateral Commission
Party	Labour
New Zealand Labour leader who became leader of the World Trade Organization, attended the 2000 Bilderberg.  Director-General of the World Trade Organization  In office 1 September 1999 - 1 September 2002 Preceded by Renato Ruggiero Succeeded by Supachai Panitchpakdi  Prime Minister of New Zealand  In office 4 September 1990 - 2 November 1990  New Zealand/Leader of the Opposition In office 2 November 1990 - 1 December 1993  New Zealand/Leader of Labour Party In office 4 September 1990 - 1 December 1993 Succeeded by Helen Clark  New Zealand/Minister of Foreign Affairs In office 9 February 1990 - 2 November 1990  Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Papanui In office 25 November 1978 - 14 July 1984  Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Christchurch North In office 14 July 1984 - 12 October 1996  Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Waimakariri In office 12 October 1996 - 31 August 1999

Michael Kenneth Moore was a New Zealand labour politician who later moved to become leader of the multinational corporations front, the World Trade Organization. In the Fourth Labour Government he was in several portfolios including Minister of Foreign Affairs, and was Prime Minister for 59 days before the 1990 general election elected a new parliament. Following Labour's defeat in that election, Moore served as Leader of the Opposition until the 1993 election, after which Helen Clark successfully challenged him for the Labour Party leadership.

Following his retirement from New Zealand politics, Moore was Director-General of the World Trade Organization from 1999 to 2002. He also held the post of New Zealand Ambassador to the United States from 2010 to 2015.

Moore began his parliamentary career when elected as the MP for Eden in 1972, becoming the youngest MP at 23 years of age, where he served for one term before being defeated in the NZ 1975 election.

There are several things pointing to a deep state functionary role, including being the minister responsible for government asset sales in the 1990s, his leadership of the World Trade Organization, and later being the New Zealand Ambassador to the United States, a job that requires awareness of the deep aspects of international politics.

Cabinet minister

As a government minister in the Fourth Labour Government he held numerous portfolios, initially as Minister of Overseas Trade, Minister of Tourism and Minister for Sport and Recreation. He became best known in his role as Overseas Trade Minister from 1984 to 1990 with involvement in the GATT negotiations. He also advanced the Closer Economic Relations (CER) free trade agreement with Australia. In 1988 he became Minister of External Relations and Deputy Minister of Finance. Moore was privately critical of the government’s asset sales agenda, particularly concerned with the surge in unemployment that followed, he even dry-vomited in a toilet after the sale of the Tourist Hotel Corporation.Espiner, He was also vehemently opposed to finance minister Roger Douglas' proposal for a flat tax rate.

In 1988 Lange recalled Palmer from overseas to be acting Prime Minister to prevent Moore (who was ranked third in cabinet) doing so. Lange later reflected saying "But God alone knew what Moore might do." Moore later said he found the comments to be quite hurtful. When Lange resigned in 1989, Moore stood for the leadership of the party, but was defeated 41 votes to 13 by Palmer. Palmer did give Moore the coveted position of Minister of Foreign Affairs in early 1990. However, Palmer was unable to regain public popularity and resigned just over a year after becoming leader. Moore stood again for the leadership and this time won, defeating backbench MP Richard Northey 41 votes to 15, and consequently became New Zealand's 34th Prime Minister.

Prime Minister

Moore became Prime Minister for 59 days, having convinced the Labour caucus that, while he could not win the election for Labour, he would help save more seats than had they remained led by Palmer. Moore energetically hit the campaign trail and made an impact immediately by handling hecklers and interjectors visibly better than Palmer had done. His performance closed the gap in the polls between Labour and National to ten percent, better than it had been for over a year.

The Labour government did not return to power in the next election however. The circumstances of Moore's installment as Prime Minister would later be compared to the return of Kevin Rudd as Prime Minister of Australia. However, in the 1990 New Zealand general election, National won a landslide, and Labour lost almost 13%, suffering its worst-ever electoral defeat since it first won power in the Template:NZ election link. Following the loss he labelled Labour's last cabinet meeting before the changeover of government 'the last supper'. He left office on 2 November 1990.

Leader of the Opposition

He led the Official Opposition until 1993 and was spokesman on Foreign Affairs and Trade as well. He attempted a rejuvenation of Labour's ranks with several important portfolio shifts, including giving the finance portfolio to Michael Cullen, designed to blunt the growth of the newly formed Alliance party (which was made up largely of Labour dissidents). He then led Labour in the Template:NZ election link where he managed to gain 16 seats, coming within two seats of clinching an unlikely victory just three years after the landslide 1990 defeat. On the night of the 1993 election he delivered a televised speech (dubbed the "long, cold night" speech) later described by political scientist Jack Vowles as "damaging" and "more appropriate for a decisive Labour win than a narrow defeat."

Moore said he was pleased with the result, thinking Labour was back in striking distance of forming a government in the future, and believed the result might give him a chance to retain the leadership. However he was deposed as leader at the first post-election caucus meeting by his deputy Helen Clark. His replacement did not surprise him, but he felt begrudged that he was given little appreciation, thinking he would "... have got thanks – then axed [but] the axe went before even 'thank yous'." The irony was not lost on Moore that Clark's allies had installed candidates in the seats Labour had picked up from his campaign who then voted to replace him, making his success the architect of his own downfall.

World Trade Organization

Moore was Director-General of the World Trade Organization from 1999 to 2002. This was the highest ever ranking job in international bureaucracy held by a New Zealander. The deal with his rival and successor Supachai Panitchpakdi meant that he served only half of the usual six-year term in the post. Moore's term coincided with momentous changes in the global economy and multilateral trading system. He attempted to restore confidence in the system following the massive public protests after the 1999 WTO ministerial conference held in Seattle. Ministers at the 2001 ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar, regarded him as the driving force behind the decision to launch a new round of multilateral trade negotiations—the ill-fated Doha Development Round. That 2001 meeting also saw the successful accession to the WTO of China and Taiwan, which along with Estonia, Jordan, Georgia, Albania, Oman, Croatia, Lithuania and Moldova joined during Moore's term, bringing the majority of the world's population within the "rules-based trading system" so dominated by Western corporations. He gave particular attention to making sure poor countries participated effectively in the multilateral trading system.

 

Event Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/2000	1 June 2000	4 June 2000	Belgium Brussels Genval	The 48th Bilderberg, 94 guests

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.